Pastor's Corner - Solemnity of the Coming of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost, the last day of Easter season, is the Greek name for “fifty days” or seven weeks. It is not
something original to the Christian community. In the Old Testament, the feast has been called the “Feast of Weeks.” It was a communal celebration of God’s abundant fidelity to the Jews in the giving of the land and its fertility. During this feast, they gathered to give thanks and share in the crops. For the Jewish believers, Pentecost is a harvest celebration. For the Christian community, it is the celebration of God’s planting the Holy Spirit to bring about a harvest of planters, who would sow a new crop or seed – the seeds of Christian faith. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, there was to be no more serious sitting around – no more complacency; no more hiding; we can’t be chicken anymore. There was a kind of interior fire that was lit, which had to be spread. People from various distant regions came, heard and were invited to listen and then return with that fire and that Spirit. The more difficult aspect of our Pentecost is that there is no more hiding or serious sitting around. Instead of serious sitting, there is an even more serious sending. As what St. Paul explains: There is One Spirit which is to be made visible or manifested in different “works”, and this Spirit is to produce “all of them in everyone.”
And how could the apostles make this Spirit more visible if they were hiding from those who were trying to persecute them? The apostle’s hiding and fearful attitude are reminiscent when God came looking for Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis; they were hiding, because they had denied who they were and lusted to be like God. In today’s gospel, when Jesus comes looking for His disciples who had denied who they were, He finds them hiding as well. The apostles were hiding because they could not accept totally with confidence who they were. It is Resurrection time, and Jesus greets them with “peace” twice and then he does two quite amazing things: He passes on to them the very mission He had received; then He breathes upon them and offers them the same breath or Spirit that brought about order from the chaos as recounted in the book of Genesis. He is telling them that as He was sent into the world to bring order into the lives of all, so they were as well — the incarnations of the Spirit who themselves are sent to bring order out of chaos. Before Pentecost, the visited-disciples were in
personal and collective disorder – they were a mess, confused, clueless and fearful. They had run away from the Light, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus came, not with condemnation, nor to convict them, but to convince them that their lives were blest and could be a blessing if they allowed the Spirit to breathe within them and through them. In the creation narrative of Genesis, the creating God, Who was breathing a spirit of order, was quoted as saying such things as, “let there be light”, and “let there be life.” Jesus is the incarnation of that same on-going love. He breathes the same Spirit upon the disciples to get up and get out into the light and bring about new life. Pentecost Sunday is a good time for us to reflect on what it means to be part of the Church. In
the 2012 survey by the Pew Religion and Public Life Project, nearly a fifth of those polled said that they were not religiously affiliated — and nearly 37 percent of that group said they were “spiritual” but not “religious.” “Spiritual but not religious” is a mantra that we probably hear so many times. Those in the spiritual-but-not-religious camp are peddling the notion that by being independent — by choosing an "individual relationship" to some concept of "higher power", energy, oneness or something-or-other — they are in a deeper, more profound relationship than one that is coerced via a large institution like a church. A good summary of it is an explanation like this, “Well, I think there is something higher, something spiritual in us, in our world, but I don’t think that religion captures it. Religion tries to get at it, but I think ultimately religion restricts it or abuses it.” The thing is, faith is not really about doctrines, rules or hierarchies, but an encounter with a person, who is Jesus. When I am asked why I am a Catholic, I always begin with my faith in Christ — then I ask
myself, what did Jesus teach, and how did he do that? Well, he formed a group of men to propagate his teachings, and this community grew larger and larger which eventually became the Catholic Church? If this is what Jesus did and Jesus is God, then who am I to question God’s plan to found this Church. It is this divine mandate, of being able to trace our roots to Christ himself, that makes the Church the true Church. But how can we claim that it is the true Church if the Church, as an institution, has made many mistakes and misgivings? The mistakes of the Church as an institution prove that we need to take more seriously the call to holiness, and that the Church needs constant purification on her part so that she can fulfill God’s will and plan, and not to lose sight of the person of Christ. The Church’s foundation can never be shaken despite all the scandals because it is founded by God himself, and as what Christ himself said to Peter “the gates of hell will never prevail against it.” A car will always be a car even if the driver is really bad, because the car’s essence is dependent from its maker. If one gets to the point of frustration or despair because of what we see and hear about the Church as an institution, ask yourself: Why am I here? Who am I following? And how can I contribute to the realization of the mission of Christ? The key and the most important part of being part of the Church is that we are here because we have a personal encounter with God. If we have that, no amount of external frustrating situations that we experience of the Church can make us leave the faith, but rather we will continue to strive to be true to who we truly are, leading the very life that Christ has asked us to embrace.
We all enjoy a pat on the back and encouraging words. A commentary that I read on this feast says that “with the coming of the Spirit, Jesus is giving His early Church more than a pat, but a boot in the backside. The same Spirit is doing the same kicking to the same area of our Church and our individual selves. No more serious sitting around and worrying or wondering who we are and what we are to do. Jesus did not give them any further instruction except to “Go.” Where shall we go? Where is the chaos? Where do others not want to go? Where are we likely to bring light and life? Where is the darkness, division and death in our families, communities, and cultures? Breathe life and the Spirit in those situations.” This brings to mind the call of Pope Francis that we have to go to the peripheries and not be contented in the confines of our comfort zones and reduce faith to bells, smokes and rituals, but rather to immortalize them through our works and interpersonal relationships. – Fr. Cary